Rising capacity and demand for migrant accommodation

From a news item by Lucy Smith, NACCOM

NACCOM, the No Accommodation Network - a national network of members preventing destitution amongst asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants, published the results of its annual accommodation survey this week.

Over the last year, an estimated 1,707 individuals were accommodated by 36 NACCOM Members, an increase of 28.5% since 2015.

Of these, 808 were refused asylum seekers, 499 were refugees and 400 were other migrants/not declared. This brings the total number of bed nights offered across the year to an estimated 209,250.

The number of people being accommodated at the time of the survey was 789, a 34% increase since last year, indicating rising capacity within the network as well as growing need. When the survey was conducted, there were 165 houses in operation, 21 hosting schemes (with 309 active hosts and 153 current guests) and 6 night shelters. 67% of those accommodated were male and 33% were female, and there were 63 different nationalities represented.

As well as demonstrating the remarkable ability of members to respond to growing and changing needs within the sector, these figures importantly demonstrate a gap in state provision for some of the most vulnerable and marginalised across communities, which has been routinely ignored and urgently needs to change.

As Dave Smith, NACCOM’s Network Coordinator, explains; "Destitution is the result of government policy that plainly denies both rights and opportunities for those who have risked everything to seek protection here. It destroys lives, not only by forcing people into positions of huge uncertainty and risk which impacts their health and future, but also by preventing those same people from working and using their skills and experiences in positive, productive ways."